Bargainista: Save on fuel, gas gift cards

That’s why I look forward to summer when from July through September, I get 5 percent cashback on gas with my Discover credit card.

Other cards including Chase Freedom also offer this rewards perk through September and other credit cards offer cashback year round albeit at lower percents. (The rest of the year I use my Amazon Chase Visa to earn 2 percent cashback on gas.)

My other way to save is buying discounted gas gift cards at Publix or earning free gift cards at CVS. Publix has a promotion that ends Sunday and during the summer CVS has been offering a $10 gas gift card for free when you buy $30 worth of select products.

While I haven’t taken advantage of Winn-Dixie’s FuelPerks program or Kmart’s Shop Your Way Rewards program, I have friends who regularly save on gas with these programs and swear by them.

With both store loyalty programs you earn money off each gallon of gas, such as 30 cents off each gallon with Kmart’s program with a $50 purchase and 5 cents with $50 purchase at Winn-Dixie but both stores offer extra money off each gallon.

You can redeem Winn-Dixie rewards at Shell gas stations and Kmart rewards at BP but gas stations prices even among the same brand can vary drastically and these stations usually charge a surcharge for credit card users.

Even if I have cash or a debit card, I try to avoid these gas stations based on principle and because often I find even their cash prices are higher. My pet peeve is when signs advertising gas prices don’t clearly specify two-tier pricing.

I rarely use cash or debit because I don’t want to miss out on earning cashback or rewards but I don’t advise you follow suit unless you’re able to pay the card off. Finance and late fees negate reward earnings as do any annual fees.

Compare the best credit cards and their rewards at comparecards.com and credithub.com.

Two gas gift card deals

Publix: Sunday is the last day to save $10 on a $50 gas gift card with the purchase of $50 in groceries at Publix. As long as you need groceries, this is a great way on gas. It’s essentially like getting $10 in free gas!

CVS: This week, when you spend $30 or more on select items including Huggies diapers, Scott paper towels or toilet paper, Kleenex tissues and a variety of other items marked with a gas symbol in the CVS flyer and throughout the store, you’ll get a $10 free gas gift card. There’s a limit of one gas gift card per CVS ExtraCare cardholder per week.